Why Write Fantasy? by Rebecca Seaton
Why Write Fantasy? by Rebecca Seaton
The quest element of fantasy
is key, this leads to powerful conflict and makes it easy for the reader to
care about your characters. It’s a good fit for the writer’s journey, a twelve
step plan which many writers use. The writer’s journey includes twelve
important elements of the story and has been applied to early drafts of stories
like the Lion King to improve them. It also includes certain character types
(friend, mentor, antagonist etc) that although they can apply in any genre, fit
the natural journey/quest structure of fantasy particularly well.
The joy of world-building is
another factor. It’s always essential to be a convincing world, however
fantastical. It can seem harder as you’re building from scratch but is also a
great freedom. One thing leads to another and economics/politics/religions/customs
all link so that the more your characters do, the easier the world building
gets and the more deeply you build, the easier it is to move you characters
through it. And this makes it easy to give them motivations, problems and
challenges.
As a Christian writer, I love
that the big picture can’t help but be spiritual. We’re all familiar with
Christian fantasy writers like Tolkien who use their own world as allegory and
a way to show people the bigger forces operating behind world events. Other
writers, like myself, don’t draw direct parallels but incorporate wider forces
of good and evil to show that spiritual dimension. I also show characters
operating in forgiveness and other choices as a result of their faith. I’m
currently enjoying the Wheel of Time series which is not Christian at all.
However, the powerful depiction of a supernatural level within the world is
deeply convincing. The world building is so strong that we see how the
spiritual has seeped into the world, with different places and people
responding differently. For example, the attitude of one main character in
pursuing what is right and necessary regardless of personal cost (to her or
anyone else!) is a clever way of convincing the reader of the existence of
higher powers within the novels.
So if you haven’t dabbled in
fantasy before, why not give it a go? It’s a wide genre and can include comic
fantasy, urban, epic and many other types so there’s something for most of us.
Painting a new world always reveals more of our own, after all.
Rebecca writes fantasy novels, magazine articles
and the occasional play. She had her first novel, A Silent Song, published
through Pen to Print’s Book Challenge competition and is currently working on
the second book of a new trilogy as her NaNoWriMo project .
So interesting, as the points made about fantasy writing illustrate how differently we writers of fiction can work! I've always known that I could not build a fantasy world, but here the way to do it is set out. So, we see that 'genres' are possibly not always 'choices' but depend on who we ar, how we approach our work, and how our inspiration comes. By the way, I don't want to make trouble, but Tolkien's writing ins't an example of using allegory. C.S. Lewis's Narnia books are indeed allegory, and meant to be, but his friend Tolkien disagreed with that approach. Nothing 'stands for' or is 'a figure for' anything else, the stories have a deep underlying Christian background, but each character/situation does not doesn't equate with anything else - including who is Gandalf/Aragorn/Frodo or any events with 'real' or other legendary ones.
ReplyDeleteGreat post,Rebecca! Thanks for the encouragement, stimulation and exposition you have given here. I have tried fantasy writing in the literal sense that is is all from imagination of what can be, could be or what could never be! The books of Frank E. Peretti drew me into fantasy writing: This present darkness, this piercing darkness and Prophet perfectly fit with the parameters for writing fantasy that you have detailed above. I look forward to reading your, 'A silent song'.Blessings.
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